


five times dean winchester came out (and one time he didn't have to)

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Awkward Crush, Bisexual Dean, Coming Out, Confessions, Crushes, Family Dinners, Friends to Lovers, Gay Castiel, Homophobic Language, M/M, Prom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 05:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6067081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Dean Winchester's relationship with Castiel Novak progresses, he finds himself having to come out multiple times to the different people in his life, with mixed results. In the end, it's worth taking the risk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	five times dean winchester came out (and one time he didn't have to)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WardenQueen666](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenQueen666/gifts).



> So, it was my beautiful friend Char's birthday yesterday, and she requested a coming out fic! But because she's so completely amazing (and she's the Dean to my Cas) I decided that wasn't good enough and I decided to write her FIVE coming outs, and it ended up being really fun to write!
> 
> Sorry this is a day late, especially since your other present is arriving late too, but I hope you enjoy it. <3
> 
> Warnings: It's in the tags, but just a reminder that there IS a homophobic slur used once here (just one, and the situation gets resolved, and it's to Dean so you can probably guess who says it) so if that's going to be triggering for you, then either don't read or skip section IV.

**_I. to cas_ **

When you were friends with the gayest kid in school, there were always going to be rumors.

Dean was used to it, for the most part. The first time Cas had shown up to school wearing rainbow suspenders and immediately walked up to Dean by his locker and hugged him, Dean had been surprised, and maybe a little uncomfortable, especially when the whispers of 'gay' had followed him around the school all day. They just hit a little too close to home. But over time, Dean had come up with strategies to avoid them. He would flirt as loudly and aggressively as he could with any girl he happened to encounter while in the hallways, he'd talk at length to his other friends about which celebrities he was crushing on, being sure to emphasize Natalie Dormer and keep very very quiet about Ryan Reynolds, and he'd make his interest in things like cars, and music, and action movies, well known. In short, he made himself into the straightest kid in school.

And that perfectly compensated for the fact that sometimes, when he was talking to his friend Castiel, he'd lean in just a little bit too close. He'd smile and hold eye contact for a little bit too long, or once he finally did turn away, he'd have to swallow and collect himself, distracted by thoughts he couldn't or didn't want to explain.

He didn't want anyone at school to know about the strange thoughts swirling around in his head, but maybe there was one person who he'd be safe telling.

Cas used to come over to Dean's house to study on Sundays. It was a tradition between them - Castiel's parents were out all day, leaving Cas alone in the house, and without any additional motivation Dean was bound to waste the entire day playing League of Legends on his laptop (something else he tried his best not to mention to anyone at school.) So Castiel came over, and he had company, and Dean had someone to yell at him every time his fingers drifted away from the textbook.

"Hey, Cas," Dean began tentatively one Sunday afternoon when they were the only two in.

"No, Dean." Cas didn't even look up from his work. "I told you. Finish the whole of your Chemistry homework and then we can play hide and seek."

Dean pouted, even though that hadn't been what he was going to ask, because he really did want to play hide and seek before Sam came home and laughed at him. "Wasn't going to say that."

Cas chuckled. "Alright, what's up?"

Dean stood up. He paced the room a few times, not sure where to begin. He kept pacing for such a long time, in fact, that Castiel completely gave up and went back to his textbook, but then finally, Dean got the courage to ask-

"You're gay, right?"

"Yes, Dean, I am gay, we've had this conversation before." Cas didn't sound exasperated, just resigned.

"And- and that means you like guys, right? Guy, and not girls?"

Cas sat up now, seeing how nervous Dean clearly was about this discussion, folding his arms and giving Dean his full attention. "I like girls very much as people, and I have several close friends who are female. However, I have no interest in dating or sleeping with them, that is correct."

"Right," Dean nodded, and sat down on the bed next to Cas. Too close. He hadn't meant to get quite that close. He shifted away, a little awkwardly. "But is that possible, you know? I mean, not for you, that's totally fine. But for some, hypothetical person - let's say his name is Steven - would it be possible for Steven to like guys and girls? And to want to date them both."

Cas reached out and took Dean's hand in his, squeezing it gently as he looked into his eyes, and Dean blushed at the attention for some reason.

"You can tell Steven that that would be called 'bisexual', and it is very much a thing that exists, and is a completely normal thing to be."

Dean nodded, his heart racing. That was more than enough sharing feelings for one day, and a good next move would be to get up and go back to his chemistry homework, the promise of hide and seek looming on the horizon. But that would mean letting go of Cas' hand.

"Cas? Look, man, I know I don't usually say shit like this, but you're my best friend. And because of that, I feel like I can stay stuff to you. So... there's something I have to tell you."

Cas gripped Dean's hand tighter as he promised, "Of course, Dean. Please feel free to tell me anything."

Dean took a deep breath, clenching his jaw as a way to prepare himself for what he was about to say. He thought these might be the two most difficult words he'd ever had to make in his life, and he couldn't look at Cas as he said them, couldn't see the shock in his eyes. Instead, he looked down at their joined hands, and mumbled, as quickly as he possibly could-

"I'm Steven."

There was a pause which felt like it went on for eternity, but in actual fact was more like two or three seconds, before Cas blew out a laugh and replied, "No, Dean, you're not Steven, because I cannot believe that anyone would be as terrible with discussing their feelings as you are. You are Dean, and you're my closest friend too, and thankyou for talking to me about this."

Dean almost cried with relief right there. He'd known he had no real reason to worry about what Cas' reaction was going to be, but even so, just the fact that he'd said something to someone felt like a huge weight off his chest. Somebody accepted him, and therefore, he wasn't a freak.

"Thanks, Cas," he said awkwardly, unable to put the rest of his feelings into words.

"Any time, Dean. Now. Perhaps a break from work and some hide and seek?"

Dean's face lit up, and he ran out of the room to cram himself in the tiny cupboard under his parents' sink before Cas had finished counting to fifty.

 

_**II. to sam** _

Nothing much changed between Dean and Castiel in the months following his confession. Occasionally, when they were alone and it came up in conversation, Dean might shyly bite his lip and admit to finding a guy attractive. Castiel would usually disagree, usually accompanied by some gentle teasing since they had completely different types, with Dean tending to go for the quiet, brooding guys and Cas for the pretty-boy jock sorts. Aside from that, he passed over the comments like it was nothing, the new information making no more difference to their friendship as a whole than the information that Dean's favorite pie flavor was cherry.

Inside Dean's mind, though, things changed a little more.

He wasn't conscious of it at first. All he knew was that Castiel Novak was really, really important to him. When he saw Cas in the hallway, he dropped whatever he was doing and ran towards him to greet him, sometiems breaking off conversations with cute girls just so that he could go and link arms with his best friend, leaning into him slightly as he walked him to class. Spending time with Cas just seemed to be the ultimate goal for him, and while other people were amazing, too, given a choice between anyone else and Cas, he would pick Cas in a heartbeat.

He sat, one day, in English class, staring at the head of the boy sitting in front of him. It wasn't Cas at all, but if Dean squinted just right, then he could pretend that the messy mop of dark hair above a collared shirt could belong to Cas, and that gave him plenty of opportunities to daydream about going for walks with Cas, the two of them traipsing through the park together in the fall, red and orange leaves fluttering down around their heads as they leaned in close to one another, close enough for their lips to-

Wait, what?

Dean glanced down, and he was horrified to see that he'd started drawing an elaborate heart on the top of the page, doodling without really thinking about it, adding some swirls and stars around it.

Later that night, he sat at dinner with his family, the four of them eating dessert together. Dean had stayed at school late for basketball practice, and he'd barely got through the front door in time for dinner to be called. He dumped his bag by his seat and started to scarf down his post roast, which was followed, as was customary on a Tuesday in the Winchester house, by apple pie and ice cream.

"Hey, Sammy, pass me the ice cream?" Dean requested, quite politely, he thought.

Sam turned to him, and then his gaze fell downwards to the bag by Dean's chair leg, which had a notebook poking out of it. His smile grew wicked and he leaned down to take it from the bag.

"Sam, what are you-"

Sam plucked the notebook from the backpack and his grin somehow grew even bigger and more evil as he stared at what was on the page, before he calmly concluded, "You've got a crush."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Dean denied, though he already knew what Sam had seen. His worst fears were confirmed when Sam flipped the notebook around, revealing his carefully shaded heart, which somehow (and Dean denied any knowledge of this, even to himself) now had song lyrics written around it, each of the i's dotted with a tiny heart of their own.

"Think this shows that ya do!" Sam cackled, waving the notebook out of Dean's reach. "Wonder who it's on..."

"I don't have a crush, now gimme the damn ice cream," Dean scowled, though he did have a crush, he knew it, and he had, in some way, known it even from long before he actually admitted to not being straight.

"Dean has a crush! Dean has a crush!" Sam giggled, holding the ice cream scoop just out of Dean's reach, taunting him, and there was nothing Dean could do about it.

Later, Dean went to find Sam in his room. Sam was curled up with a book about the same size as him, completely engrossed in the old, worn pages of it, and he didn't even notice when Dean appeared in the doorway.

Dean cleared his throat.

"Sam. Sammy. Hey there," he said, hovering awkwardly.

Sam sighed as he looked up from his book. "Don't call me Sammy. Sammy's a chubby twelve year old. I'm thirteen, Dean."

Dean was about to fight back, but then he remembered that he really did want to have Sam on his side for this one. "Sorry. Sam."

"Thankyou. Now, what do you want?" Sam sat up on his bed and fixed Dean with a look like a stern schoolteacher.

"About this crush that I have. Could you please just not mention it to Mom and Dad again?"

"It's just, I do have a crush, but it's not like what you think."

"Not like what I think?" Sam teased. "You mean it's not like you drawing hearts and flowers and writing sappy love notes in your notebook, listening to Taylor Swift on the way home every day, crying into your pillow cause they'll never like you back?"

Dean pulled a face. "I don't listen to-"

"Shut up. I steal your iPod when I ride your bike sometimes. Love Story has 276 plays."

Dean half-wanted to hit Sam at that moment, but he thought it would be counterproductive, considering he was trying to get Sam on his side here. "It's a beautiful tale of forbidden romance, okay? Anyway, Love Story aside, you really can't mention my... my... my crush, to anyone, because of who the crush is on."

"Who's it on? Oh my God, I bet it's on a teacher."

"It's not on a teacher, bitch!" He leaned forward close to whisper into Sam's ear, just in case there was anyone outside of the door, before saying, "Sammy, I've got a crush on Cas."

There was a pause, and then-

"Ew. Why do you have a crush on Cas?" Sam mimed puking into his lap.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with having a crush on a guy! It's a totally normal thing, Sammy, so there's no need to get all judgmental on me."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Not Sammy. And I don't care that you have a crush on a guy. I'm just saying that Cas is weird. He stares for too long, I don't like it."

Dean blinked at Sam, stunned into silence for a moment. "That's your problem with all of this? That Cas stares too much?"

"Well - yeah. And what's with that weird bee backpack? What is he, twelve?"

Once again, Dean didn't comment on the fact that Sam himself had been twelve until very recently. "Whatever. You don't have to like Cas, just so long as you don't tell anyone that I do. Or that I... you know... like boys."

Sam grinned mischievously. "Of course I won't! Well - I won't so long as you promise that as soon as you get your driver's license, you'll take me to the arcade to hang out with Gabriel."

Dean groaned. "You're a little shit sometimes, you know that?"

"Learned it from you, jerk."

 

**_III. to mary_ **

Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak got together on Friday, the nineteenth of February, at 3.32pm, both aged seventeen, in their junior year of high school. There was a light drizzle outside, and Castiel was wearing a red and white striped rugby shirt over baggy jeans, his thick rimmed glasses just slipping off the end of his nose, his stubble just slightly too long.

Not that Dean was paying attention to the details or anything.

Mary eyed Dean suspiciously when he made his way into the kitchen. "What's got you all smiley, young man?"

Dean froze. He and Cas hadn't talked about whether they were going to tell anyone yet. Actually, they hadn't really talked about anything at all beyond the fact that they had feelings for each other. From that point onwards it had been mostly kissing, and really amazing kissing at that.

Mary waited, arms folded, and she painted a threatening picture even in her oldest baking apron with flour sprinkled all over the sides of it. "Come on. You're not getting pie unless you tell me what's up."

"That's not fair," Dean tried to protest, although if he was honest, he was bursting to tell someone. Sam would laugh at him, he probably wasn't ready to be open with anyone else at school yet, and as for his father? John would probably skin him alive and hang him on the washing line. But his mother had never been anything but supportive of every decision he'd made, his whole life. So if he was going to tell someone, the only person who it made sense to be was her.

"Is Dad in?" he finally asked in a tiny voice.

Mary shook her head. "Out at a bar with some friends again. Probably won't be back until the rest of us are starting to think about getting up in the morning. Sam's at a friend's house, so it's just you and me here."

Dean went to take a seat at the kitchen table, and Mary followed him, her expression unreadable.

"What is it, dear?"

Dean knew things were getting serious that that point. She only called him 'dear' when his grandmother was in the hospital or when she'd found out he was completely failing algebra. Clearly, she had some kind of sixth sense for knowing when something very important was happening.

He decided to begin with the easy part. "So... you know how I always said I wasn't interested in dating anyone? How I just wanted to have fun with my friends while I was in high school and not think about anything like that until I was old?"

Mary nodded, not pressing him, or trying to guess where this was going.

"Well, I kinda changed my mind."

Mary smiled. "And is there someone in particular you changed your mind for? I do remember Sam mentioning a few months back that you had a crush, but I wasn't sure if it was just brotherly teasing."

"It wasn't. Well, it was, because when is Sam not being a dick to me-" Dean caught sight of Mary's disapproving frown. "Sorry. What I meant is, yeah, there's someone. And we started actually going out today. And I'm really scared, Mom." Dean hadn't actually meant to say that part out loud, but it was true, and he couldn't take it back now. "Because they're just really important to me, you know? And we're already friends and even if things don't work out I don't wanna mess shit up and lose that."

Mary didn't even tell him off for the swear word, which surprised him, because she usually had him put a dollar in the swear jar whenever she overheard (but he couldn't let that happen any more, he needed those dollars for taking Cas out on dates.) "You won't, Dean. You're taking a risk and that's always scary, I know, but I am proud of you for it. Whoever you're dating is very, very lucky - and must be special, to make you change your mind like this. Perhaps a family dinner invitation is in order?"

She smiled, the corner of her eyes crinkling, as though she expected him to get embarrassed and refuse. But he didn't. He just scoffed, saying, "Yeah, that might happen sooner than you think." After all, Cas was coming over on Sunday, just like normal.

Mary raised an eyebrow. "So it's serious?"

Dean dropped his head onto the table and had to physically resist banging it a few times. He glanced up just enough to stare at a point somewhere around his mother's chin, and mumbled, "Yeah. I mean, no. I mean, it's been about three hours, it's a bit early to say. It's just... Mom, it's Cas."

A grin that spread across Mary's face; one that started small but kept growing and growing until it split her entire face in two, lighting up the whole room. "You and Cas are dating now?"

"Yeah. I hope that's okay with you. I know it's probably a shock-"

"Dean, honey." Mary interrupted him, still unable to control her smile. "It's the most wonderful surprise I've had all day. Remind me to spoil him even more than I usually do, yeah? I was worried for a moment that whoever you were with now might not be good enough for you. But with Cas? That is something I will never worry about."

And even though it was something he hadn't voluntarily done since he was about four years old, Dean Winchester got out of his seat, walked around the side of the table and hugged his mother tight, burying his face in her soft hair and whispering a desperate "Thank you," into her ear.

 

**_IV. to john_ **

"I told my dad about you today."

"You- you did?" If he was honest, Dean was more surprised about the fact that Cas had actually seen his dad in person than he was about the fact that he'd told him anything. "What did he say?"

Cas shrugged, leaning over and kissing Dean on the corner of his mouth, a move that always made Dean blush no matter how many times it happened. "I don't think he was listening to me. Just mumbled something about how he was glad I was staying in school and needed to go water his cactus. But I did what I could, and now, if you ever meet him, we can be ourselves around him."

They'd been together for a few months at this point, and the relationship was still a secret from all but a select few people. By this point, the honeymoon stage of making out for hours on end and jumping each other the second they were alone together was coming to an end, and they were settling down into a comfortable life together that involved plenty of lively complaining about their classes that day and cuddling while watching old black and white movies.

And, of course, there were still their Sunday study dates, which were far more interesting now that Dean's reward for getting homework done involved blow jobs rather than hide and seek.

But right now they weren't on a study date; they were talking about Cas' dad, and Dean was suddenly scared, because this felt like such a huge step, and one he hadn't expected Castiel to take quite yet. "Well, that's awesome. But does this mean you want me to tell my dad too?"

Because that was definitely something Dean wasn't ready to do. He kind of liked having a home, and didn't feel like getting thrown out of it by an ex-Marine any time soon.

Cas shook his head. "Of course not. You can tell your father whenever you're ready, or never, if you don't want to. I simply thought this was something I should mention to you, and I did not mean to pressure you."

Dean took a few deep breaths, letting the panic ease out of him. "Thanks, Cas. Sorry for freaking out on you for a moment." He laid his head in Cas' lap, closing his eyes as he felt a hand start stroking his hair.

Dean never blamed Cas for what happened next, but it did explain why it had been on his mind.

It was just a few days later; another family dinner between the four of them, and John was on Dean's case, as he so often was.

"Son, you skipped basketball practice tonight. That's the third time this semester. How do you ever expect to do well if you're not even going to bother putting in the effort? Basketball makes you strong so that you can join the army once you graduate, isn't that what we always said?"

Dean shoved another forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, as defiantly as possible, speaking with his mouth full. "Had to do homework. Can't go into the army if I fail out of school, can I?" He sounded way more confident than he felt, along with the fact that he hadn't actually been doing homework at all, he'd been sitting in an empty, darkened classroom after school hours trading illicit hand jobs with Castiel.

"You know what you need?" John asked, though it wasn't a question at all, and was instead more of a threatening statement that Dean had to fight not to cringe away from. "You need a girl. When I was your age, I had your mother, and if I decided to laze around and not do anything, she'd give me the kick up the ass I needed. You could do with the same."

And Dean snapped. He had no idea he was going to say it, and if someone had told him even yesterday that he would, he'd have laughed in their face, but right in that moment he just couldn't stop himself. He leaned across the table, getting right up in his father's face, the rest of his vision blurring until he could see nothing but his father's eyes, and spat, "Yeah, well, I'm not really on the market for a girlfriend, am I, seeing as I already have a boyfriend."

Twin gasps came from the rest of the table. Both Mary and Sam knew about Cas, but they'd both agreed with Dean that John should be kept in the dark for a very, very long time, and neither of them were prepared for whatever might happen next because of this impromptu confession.

John blinked a few times, and Dean had to fight back a laugh at the lump of mashed potato stuck to the corner of his mouth. "Excuse me?"

And Dean's first instinct was to back down, but, well, he'd started now, and he didn't really have a whole lot more to lose by finishing the job. "You heard me. Me and Cas? We're dating. Going out. I'm kissing a boy. I'm even having sex with him." He took a deep breath, unable to believe he was going to say this last part to his father before he'd even said it to Cas, but not wanting to stop until he'd gone as far as he possibly could, filled with adrenaline from the rush of finally talking back to his father. "You know what? I love him. I love Cas, in a really, really gay kind of way."

John stared, and Dean swore he could see his face literally turn redder and redder as he tried to process all this new information without exploding. Dean, Sam and Mary were all in the same position right at that moment, all of them fighting to hold their ground and not to cower under the sheer fury of John's expression, all completely failing at acting like they weren't terrified. Dean felt guilty, knowing he'd caused this whole situation, but at the same time he felt amazing, knowing that his father had never expected him to ever talk back to him like that, knowing that he'd actually gone and done something he'd been dreaming about doing ever since he was a little kid.

Just when the tension couldn't get any higher, John slammed a hand down on the table, rattling the plates and making everyone's water glass spill over the side, and when he spoke, it was in a booming voice that trembled with the effort of not lashing out and hitting everyone in the room.

"You can leave. You can walk out this door right now and never speak to me again, or you'd better believe I will make life a living hell for my fag of a son."

****

**_V. to everyone at school_ **

Mary kicked John out of the house.

She gave him the choice first, offering him the option to stay and accept and love his son for everything he was, and when John refused, she put one final combat boot up his ass and sent him out of the door, telling him never to come back. She slammed the door, dusted herself off and announced that that was something she should have done years ago, before heading back into the kitchen to make so many pies that they didn't all fit in the fridge.

And Dean should have felt amazing. He should have just been grateful for what he had - a mother and brother who supported him and let Castiel come over whenever he wanted, to the point that he would usually head to the Winchesters' as soon as school was finished on Friday and not leave until it started again on Monday, keeping toothbrushes and sweatpants in a special drawer of Dean's dresser that literally had his name carved into it.

From that point onwards the two of them got to spend almost all their time together, and both of them were happy, but even so... Sometimes, Castiel would instinctively reach out for Dean's hand when the two of them were together in the hallways at school, or lean over to kiss his cheek, and every time, Dean would shrug off the touch, pulling away from him.

And every time, Cas' face would fall, and his shoulders would stoop, and he would look just a tiny bit dejected. And it hurt Dean so much to see.

Dean knew that Cas would never actually complain, that he understood that Dean wasn't quite ready to be open about things with the whole world, especially after what had happened with John. And it wasn't like it caused a strain on their relationship or anything, since Dean more than made up for it with how affectionate he was with Cas in private.

But even so, Dean wanted to do something special.

The announcement of prom at school came as something of a surprise to both of them, considering they'd never really talked about it before, but it only took a short conversation for the two to decide what they wanted to do. Cas suggested they each go alone, perhaps ensuring that a few other friends of theirs were also going alone, and then met up once they got there without causing any suspicion that they were anything more than friends. Dean agreed immediately to the plan, which in itself seemed to come as a surprise to Cas. Dean wondered if he was really that bad, if Cas had thought he was going to insist on taking other dates.

That only made Dean more determined to do this for Cas.

After all, it was the right time. School was coming to an end, everyone was admitting the crushes they'd always had, crazy things were happening that nobody could have seen coming.

It took a few weeks after the announcement, but finally, Dean felt ready. He was sitting with a group of people including Cas in the cafeteria, eating their lunch together. Dean wasn't eating. He was too nervous to eat.

"Dean, you really should have something," Cas told him, with a level of concern in his eyes that just bordered on 'more than platonic'. Often, this would have worried Dean, and he'd have done his best to do something 'bro-like' to ease suspicion, but today it didn't matter. Not anymore.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go get something right now. Be back in a minute."

He stood, making his way not to the food stations but to the back of the room where the microphone was kept for making announcements. A teacher looked at him suspiciously as he approached. That microphone had been used for too many pranks in the past, and some of them by Dean himself. But it only took a few whispered words of what he was planning to do before the teacher smiled and waved for him to go ahead.

He stood up on the closest table, clutching the microphone between his hands, trying not to shake. Mostly because he knew that if he shook too much, he would fall over, and it would be ridiculously embarrassing to go crashing own onto the floor in front of almost the entire school. He tapped it once with a finger, and a ringing sound reverberated around the entire room, a hush spreading over the room as everyone turned to face him.

All of a sudden, a thousand pairs of eyes were trained on Dean Winchester, standing there in the same shirt he'd worn yesterday with absolutely no speech prepared.

"Right," he began feebly.

There was a snort of derision from somebody in the crowd. Dean thought it might have been Fergus Crowley, and he wrinkled his nose to himself, standing up a little straighter (ha!) and more confident now, determined to prove everybody wrong.

"Right. I'm sure you all know what this is about. Because it's that kind of year when everyone is pulling crazy stunts like this, and guys are trying to outdo each other, because let's be real, everyone wants a hot prom date. Me included. So you're all probably bored of seeing kids ask each other to prom, so I'll try not to take up too much of your time. But, thing is, there's a student here. Someone really cool. And we've actually been dating, in secret, for over a year now. But they're way too good to be a secret, I don't want secrets, I wanna stand up here and say, hey, look at this person who just... doesn't suck as much as the rest of you losers."

His final sentence trailed off into nothing. He'd been planning to give Cas a really amazing compliment and compare him to a shooting star blazing its trail across the night sky or something equally as beautiful, but he'd chickened out right at the end there and fucked it all up. Still, it was better than nothing.

"So, yeah. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but honestly, I don't care. And I'm just gonna say it. Castiel Novak - angel - will you go to prom with me?"

There was a hush, during which everyone took the exact same amount of time to process what had just happened, and then there was noise, a hundred different reactions all going on at once. Dean noticed some people cheering and clapping, some people looking outraged and yelling things that didn't sound pretty, some people expressing loud disbelief, some people cackling with glee as they exchanged money with their friends.

But Dean found that he only cared about the reaction of one specific person.

Castiel was already half our of his seat, looking as shaky as Dean felt, rapidly blinking tears old of his eyes even as he failed to hold back a sunbeam smile. He strode towards the front of the room where Dean was still standing on the table, holding out a hand for him, and Dean jumped down into the waiting arms of his boyfriend, who pulled him in for a hug. While the two of them were pressed up against each other, Cas whispered into Dean's ear, "You didn't have to do that."

Dean pulled back, threading a hand through Cas' beautiful hair and daring to hold eye contact as he replied - because what was one more completely unnecessary confession after everything that had already happened today - "I know. But I wanted to, cause I love you."

He didn't give Cas the chance to respond before he pulled him into a deep kiss in front of the entire school.

 

**_I. one time he didn't have to_ **

Dean squeezed Castiel's hand tight enough to break it as the two of them walked hand in hand through the corridors of the hospital, looking for room 192. He was jumpy with his nerves, every announcement over the loudspeaker or person coming out of a door making him look around in shock, irrationally convinced that everything was somehow going to get completely messed up.

It was years since Dean had sat with Castiel on the bed and made his incredibly awkward confession to not being straight. Years since they'd taken each other to prom, officially, with flowers and slow dances and everything. Years, even, since the two had put rings on each other's fingers and promised each other the whole of forever.

And now, they were going to bring somebody else into that forever too.

They found the door and knocked gently, and after a few moments of tense silence during which Dean was convinced this had all been an elaborate practical joke, the door opened and a doctor waved them inside. Both Dean and Cas' eyes immediately fell on the young blonde woman sitting in a hospital gown on the bed, holding a bundle of white blankets.

She stood up when she saw Dean and Cas arrive, cutting off whatever the doctor was about to say as though she wanted to be the one to tell them. "Healthy baby girl. Seven pounds, two ounces, born yesterday afternoon at three thirty-two PM. Doctors did some tests and there don't seem to be any problems, and... she's yours to take home. If you still want her."

Dean let out a shaky breath. "Still want her? Course we still want her. Never wanted anything more."

Cas nodded in agreement. "This truly means a lot to us, Jo. Thankyou."

The woman smiled fondly at both of them. "Don't thank me. I don't want kids, but then this happened, and I just figured she should go to someone who's going to treat her like a princess. Or, you know, a badass dragon slayer. Whatever she wants to do with her life."

Dean frowned. "She better not grow up to be a dragon slayer. That sounds like a dangerous job. I don't want her getting hurt."

He was deadly serious on the matter, and he couldn't understand why everyone in the room with him fell about laughing.

When they'd all finally got their laughter under control, Jo held the baby close for a moment, closing her eyes and breathing in deep, giving her one final hug. Then, she offered her to the two men standing opposite. "Would one of you like to hold her?"

They both did, but Cas gestured for Dean to go forward first. After all, they would both have plenty of time to take turns.

Dean stretched out his arms and took the bundle of cloth, pulling back the top layer to fix his eyes on his daughter for the first time. He swallowed hard, because Dean Winchester did not cry in front of two people he barely knew as well as his child, but he knew it was futile when a single tear dripped from his eye and splashed onto the blanket. Cas put a reassuring hand on his back, soothing him, reaching up with the other hand to wipe Dean's eye, and the two of them stood together and just stared for a while at this new, tiny person they couldn't quite believe was theirs.

Dean Winchester knew that every day of his life, he would have to tell someone new about their relationship. Every day was another day that the woman in the bank would give him a disapproving look when he mentioned his husband, or that a passenger on the subway would shy away from the two of them when Dean pecked Cas on the lips.

But here was somebody who he would never have to tell for the first time. Here was somebody who would always just _know._

When Dean was younger, he'd been friends with the gayest kid in school, and now, today, he had a child with the gayest kid in school. And he couldn't wait to tell everyone about it.

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes i blog at **casandsip.tumblr.com.** come talk to me there


End file.
